Queen Elizabeth II attends the Royal Windsor Horse Show at Home Park on May 16.
Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images
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Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images

Queen Elizabeth II attends the Royal Windsor Horse Show at Home Park on May 16.

Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images

The wonderful thing about this picture is that in it, Queen Elizabeth — who is at the Royal Windsor Horse Show — looks like any other grandma.

I remember watching her rattle by in her ... carriage? coach? ... and thinking about how unreal it was. Even without any particular appreciation for ceremony, royalty in general, or this particular royal family, the Queen is such a figure to a lot of people. Not all, by any means, but there's this sense that she's more like a building than a human, in that you go to gaze at her and, of course, rarely interact with her.

But now and then, you see a photo like this that reminds you, for good and for ill, that had she been born under different circumstances, she would just be a lady who likes a quilted vest and a horse show. It's both sweet and a little unsettling not knowing how different her life is from what it would have been if she had just been such a lady.

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